Trick Hand
To the public at large, Trick Hand is just one of many odd cult leaders populating Raven's Grove. Her cult, the Roots of Kuz, is one of the larger cults but also seen as one of the most harmless; the cult believes in living 'green' and worshiping Trick Hand as a living embodiment of nature. The truth, however, is far darker. Trick Hand is an unobtrusive Overlord, quietly controlling all the crime within the confines of the Venus District of Raven's Grove Origin Nicole Star was one of those girls that if you weren't actively looking for her you'd simply never see her. She didn't seem to mind that so much, she was fairly content with her quiet Gothic lifestyle, listening to her favorite Goth bands and honing her passion for baking. But deep down inside Nicole was an angry and bitter young woman, instilled with a solid conviction that she was meant for something greater. Her choice of lifestyle, being Goth and being openly lesbian, had not gone over well with many of her class mates, and she was often the target for bullying and not-so-harmless pranks. Perhaps her conviction stemmed from some sort of clairvoyance for, indeed, she was meant for something greater. Along with her twin sister, Samantha, Nicole found an old mystic tome entitled the Grimoire of Ages in the attic of her own family home. The two girls amused themselves by reading incantations aloud. One of them worked. The girls were flooded with mystic energy and each one of them flung through a magic portal to two different ends of Raven's Grove. Whereas Samantha was called to become a protector as Flourish, the universe quite neatly balanced out the twins by calling Nicole to become a deceiver. Unlike Flourish, Nicole awake from the teleportation with her memories completely intact, and an instinctive knowledge of how to use her newfound abilities. Her first act was to make cheery house calls to a number of class mates that has been problematic to her at school and force them to watch as she tortured and dispatched their families before putting the tormentors themselves out of their misery. Adopting the street identity of Trick Hand she began making a number of public appearances in Raven's Grove, preaching a holistic lifestyle that appealed to many. Thus she founded her cult, the Roots of Kuz, and began to gain some public notariety. She was able to cement her status as a cult leader by using her pwers to perform 'miracles of nature' and, with generous donations from her followers, purchased a large estate home in the Venus district of Raven's Grove to use as her base of operations. Trick Hand began supplimenting her income by staging a number of sophisticated robberies of local banks and jewelry stores. She executed each job with flawless precision, ensuring that the crimes could not be traced back to her. When the media began taking notice of the myserious robberies and local superheroes began investigating, Trick Hand chose four of her most loyal cult members and took them to Olympic Industries, where she paid through her nose to have each of them given super-human abilities. She then sent these four--The Constituents--out to put faces to the robberies to provide herself further indemnity against detection. When Flourish began gaining public adolation Trick Hand realized at once who Flourish is in her civilian identity. She immediately became a thorn in Flourish's side, crafting all manner of plots to get her sister in trouble. She committed a few petty crimes dressed up as Flourish, created portals to Praetoria that allowed Sigil to come through to harass Flourish, and even followed her sister to many missions and caused her spells and enchantents to go astray, making Flourish look horribly bad. It was these activities that brought her to Entropy's attention. Entropy offered Trick Hand a position on her team, an invitation which Nicole politely turned down stating that she had no desire to be anyone's lackey. Entropy, impressed with her candor, forwarded the information he had on her to Mastermind, along with a recommendation. When Mastermind later approached her and offered her the position of Overlord of Venus and putting her on nearly equal footing with Entropy, Trick Hand accepted the offer. To date, she has not regretted it. The Overlord Trick Hand As the Overlord of the Venus district of Raven's Grove Trick Hand strictly monitors all of the crimes that take place there, which is usually narcotics, illegal chop shops, black market organ sales, and sometimes assassinations. Her biggest flow of income comes from the Jewel Club Underground and therefore she puts the group on her high priority list, ensuring that they are well-protected from law enforcement and meddling superheroes. Trick Hand is a very attractive sixteen year old with long platinum blonde hair and a taste for fine Gothic attire. As the public face of the Roots of Kuz she sees the group as a chance at performance art, often making statements that make her seem a wee bit less than connected to reality, and comes across as harmless. Trick Hand is a potent spell-caster, focusing most of her magical prowess on arts of deception and the manipulation of nature. She is able to utilize potent illusions that affect all five senses; these illusions affect the environment directly so that any onlooker will experience them. With her illusory magic she is able to conceal her true power level, hide or alter her perceived emotional state, and even render herself undetectable. As a 'nature witch' Trick hand can change, alter, or cause the environment to act in ways she demands. She is able to control local weather patterns to do anything from conjure up a severe storm, a thick fog, or powerful gales of wind. She can likewise utterly eliminate the weather control powers of others. She can entangle foes in thick tree roots, cause thorn bushes to volley their thorns at foes with the speed of a bullet, and entangle or pull her enemies apart with creeping vines. She is able to command fauna as well as flora, so her victims may find themselves fending off swarms of angry rats, flocks of pecking ravens, or the savage bites of neighborhood dogs. Trick Hand enjoys presenting herself as friendly, eager to help, and completely air-headed. People whom have met with her and talked with her generally agree that she's an oddball cult leader but is harmless. She doesn't demand that her cult commit crimes, disrespect or disobey the law, and don't cause problems in the neighborhood. Most of the time, Trick Hand is written off as a loony and forgotten about. Trick Hand is a very dangerous young woman. She loves to live for deceit, lies, and misdirection. She is a killer though not the type to kill casually. She is a very smart crime boss, and may even be able to use her charm and acting skills to be acquitted by a jury if she were ever arrested. Agents The majority of Trick Hands 'agents' are her followers in her cult, the Roots of Kuz. The cult is currently 33 members strong and growing, and they are not criminals. They're environmentalists and tree-huggers, living a green lifestyle and always respectful of law enforcement officials. They've all seen Trick Hnd's nature magic at work and most believe that she is a benevolent nature spirit that has arrived to teach mankind how to live in harmony with nature. However, The Constituents know the truth. They know who Trick Hand is, they know her role in The Advent, and they adore her. These villains, two women and two men, keep their civilian identities carefully secret so that their activities can't be traced back to Trick Hand. They are her most ardent fans, having been rewarded with super-powers for their loyalty. They act as Trick Hand's enforcers, messengers, leg-breakers and, when needed, her assassins. 'Duet '-- Duet is the leader of The Constituents. She is soft spoken, respectful to everyone, and doesn't really come across as the super-villain type. She takes her name from her power to generate concussive blasts of sounf, which can also use to erect personal defense walls. She can surprise aggressive heroes as well with her ability to spawn an exact duplicate of herself, which also has her sound control powers. 'Harpsichord -- '''is the second woman of The Constituents, covering every inch of herself but her long streaming brown hair in a two-toned green bodysuit. Harpsichord is an energy projector, able to throw a form of unknown bright green energy from both hands in the form of blasts, bolts, bursts, and explosive spheres. For unknown reasons Harpsichord is very hostile, especially toward female law enforcment officers. She always attacks female heroes first, furiously trying to blast them into fragments. '''Brawn '-- Brawn is just what his name suggestes: he's a tanker. He can lift around the area of ten tons, and can generate as much force with a punch, push, or shove. Any force less than medium caliber firearms just bounces harnlessly off of his bodybuilder physique. Indeed, Brawn presents himself as a professional wrestler complete with bare chest, blue trucks, knee and elbow pads, and a blue face mask. 'Hillcrest '-- Hillcrest is the group's martial artist. Dressing in a shnazzy black bodysuit Hillcrest likes nothing better than to have a go at his nemies with his bare hands and savage kicks. If the opponent is too tough to be taken down by a few well-placed karate chops then the razor sharp katanas and shuriken he carries usually do the trick. In addition to The Constituents, Trick Hand is able to call upon the Chromatic Dragons in Raven's Grove. She also sometimes tries to make use of the Grove's gaggle of Creepshow but often finds her overtures blocked by the Creepshow leader Bekah Swann, whom Trick Hand considers an enemy. Category:Overlords Category:Magic Category:Villains